Haven for Hope, the “one-stop-shop” homeless services operation in San Antonio, reached capacity during this week’s Texas freeze.
The nonprofit hosted 1,734 people on Sunday night and 1,711 on Monday night, as reported by KSAT 12. The facility is designed to sleep 1,422 people with an overflow capacity of 290.
Communications director Terri Behling said Haven has hit full capacity before, but it works with other local non-profit groups to provide shelter to the homeless when their facility no longer has space left.
“Whenever we had somebody that we had to divert because we had reached our capacity, we were able to transport them over there via taxi and get warm shelter for the night,” Behling said, per KSAT 12.
A dozen people were taken to other emergency shelters on Sunday night, and 10 were taken to other shelters Monday night after being turned away from Haven due to the shelter surpassing capacity the first night and practically reaching it the second.
Rachel Garcia, a formerly homeless woman who now lives on Haven for Hope’s campus with her daughter, described living on the streets in cold weather to KSAT 12.
“It was so cold, nothing to eat,” she said. “It was very ugly for me.”
Now at Haven, Garcia is taking advantage of the programs and services offered by the organization. She is taking part in parenting classes and working toward getting her own apartment sometime in the next three months.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Haven has deployed a “one-stop-shop” approach to helping homeless people secure shelter. It offers an array of supportive services, such as counseling and job training, on the same campus it provides transitional housing.
This model has been credited with a 77% reduction in homelessness in downtown San Antonio and has polled favorably among Dallas residents, the vast majority of whom disapprove of the levels of homelessness, vagrancy, and panhandling in their neighborhoods and elsewhere in Dallas. Some local stakeholders are aiming to bring such a model to the city.
However, it remains to be seen whether the City of Dallas will support this effort.
